This invention relates generally to inkjet printers, and more particularly to media handling and ejection systems.
Conventional inkiet printers tend to have a shape which is tall and shallow compared to laser printers, for example, which have shapes which are of moderate height and broad depth. Inkjet printer height is determined by the cumulative height of various components. Height of a typical inkjet printer is determined by summing the input paper tray height, the feed roller diameter, the printhead height, and the cumulative height of various mechanisms, such as portions of the casing. Reducing printer height, without compromising performance and features is desirable.
For inkjet printers as with other printers, it is an ongoing desire to improve printing speed without compromising print quality. For multi-sheet print jobs one of the tradeoffs in determining print speed is ink drying time. One does not want a currently printing media sheet to cause a previous media sheet to smear. Because media sheets are to be stacked, it is known to elevate the currently printing media sheet above the output stack for a time so as to avoid smearing. For example, before ejecting a media sheet into an output tray, a conventional inkjet printer first ejects the sheet onto a set of rails above the output tray. The rails serve to isolate the current media sheet from a prior media sheet and to hold the media sheet level so that the portion of the media sheet within a print zone stays flat. The media sheet later is dropped onto the output tray before the next media sheet is ejected. To move the media sheet off the rails, the rails typically are retracted toward outer walls adjacent to the output tray. When the media sheet falls from the rails into the output tray, the media sheet sometimes sails from the output tray onto the desktop or floor. Accordingly, it is desirable to achieve a reliable ejection method for placing media sheets into the output tray.